What's for dinner: Zimbabwe's mopane worms!

I read an interesting stomach-turning diet coverage by Associated Press' Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi. The writer wrote about people consuming worms, or to be exact, caterpillars. But like what people say - one's cure is other's poison. so, let's not pass the verdict indiscriminately.

That's for today's dinner. Wikipedia photo

Pretty big guy!

Mopane worms are large edible caterpillar found in much of Africa.

A mopane worm hatches and as it grows, it sheds skin 4 times in its five larval stages, after which the mopane worm is considered most suitable for harvesting.

Otherwise it goes into pupal stage and transforms into giant moth, commonly called emperor moth due to it size.

The worms can be eaten dry, as crunchy as potato chips, or cooked and drenched in sauce to enhance the taste.


You may want to try your hands on these:

During harvest season, the compounds are covered with thousands of worms, laid out to dry in the hot sun. AP photo through mail.com


Nutritional value

Mopane worms are high in healthy nutrients and contain 3 times the amount of protein as beef. Eating worms is less taxing on the environment than consuming beef because it takes far fewer leaves to produce worms than it does feed to produce the same amount of beef.

Dried mopane worms have even been exported to other countries and can be found in African restaurants in Paris.


A useful recipe

This is a recipe that AP says "is one of the tastiest":

Ingredients (Mopane Worms for 4 persons):
500 grams dried mopane worms; three tomatoes, diced or 1 can of tomatoes; two onions, diced; 1/2 teaspoon turmeric; three fresh green chilies, finely chopped; three cloves of garlic, finely chopped; tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely chopped.

Cooking it:
Soak dried worms in water for 3-4 hours to reconstitute. Fry onions in groundnut oil on medium heat until translucent. Add turmeric, chilies, garlic and ginger. Fry for about five minutes. Add tomatoes and cook on low for about 20 minutes until spices are well blended. Add drained worms and cook until they have softened a bit but still are a little crunchy. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with pap, called sadza in Zimbabwe.



This article was derived from AP

Samsung Africa launches Solar-powered Internet schools

Watch it Malaysia.

Because we can definitely do this and we can even surpass what they did in South Africa. We have the talents (experienced designers and installers), we have many remote areas, and most of all, we have the social obligation - and the leaders pledge - to extend similar services to the rural folks. The hilly terrain should not be too much of a challenge to transport stuff anymore nowadays. The implementation of the promised Internet Village should be intensified and do away with too much hassle.

We do not have to wait for Samsung to do CSR for us, do we?

A 40-foot shipping container-turn-school.

They did it in South Africa

Samsung has built the first-of-its-kind solar-powered internet schools in the remote rural areas of South Africa, with design specifically to thwart theft. The schools are understood to have been equipped with Samsung's tablet PCs, laptop computers, internet connection, wi-fi cameras.

Samsung reckon that, on average, less than 25% of rural areas on the continent benefit from electricity, resulting in isolated communities with limited access to education and connectivity.

The solar-powered schools are built for energy scarce environments, harsh weather conditions, and for transportation over long distances. The solar panels, made from rubber (not glass) provide enough energy to power the classroom’s equipment for up to nine hours a day, and for one and a half days without any sunlight at all. The selection of rubber material over glass is to withstand long journey into the rural areas.


KK Park, President and CEO of Samsung Africa, on the initiative:

“We have set an ambitious goal for ourselves in Africa: to positively affect 5-million lives by 2015. We believe that this can most effectively be achieved if we connect our CSR initiatives with our history and core business. With the goal to grow our business on the continent, we also know that we have to sustain our level of innovation. This can only be achieved if we invest in education to facilitate African thought leadership and to ensure we have access to a large workforce of skilled engineers in the future. The Solar Powered Internet School is a great example of this strategy at play.”

The classroom can accommodate 21 student. It is also equipped with a 50-inch electronic board.

The classroom is equipped with a smart power consumption monitor that detects if people use the solar setup to power anything that they are not supposed to, such as television sets. I think this is a good idea but being in a remote area, Samsung should provide some socket outlets for the community to charge their electric lanterns, communication tools, etc. This should serve the general public even further.

If 'power theft' is a concern, Samsung can always password-protect the power sockets.


Source: designboom and Samsung Tomorrow.